editorNPR Digital Services RSS Generator 0.94NPR Digital Services RSS Generator 0.94John PowersMon, 14 Aug 2017 02:25:13 +0000John Powershttp://kvpr.org
John PowersCopyright 2017 Fresh Air. To see more, visit Fresh Air . TERRY GROSS, HOST: This is FRESH AIR. Like Woody Allen before him, Albert Brooks gave up standup comedy to make his own films. Our critic-at-large, John Powers, considers Brooks's 1985 film "Lost In America" a masterpiece. It's just been released on DVD and Blu-ray by Criterion. "Lost In America" is the story of a well-heeled LA couple, played by Brooks and Julie Haggerty, who decide to become free-spirited wanderers. John just watched it for the umpteenth time and says it's one of the greatest comedies of the last 40 years. JOHN POWERS, BYLINE: A lot of comedians are funny. But only a handful have the genius to shape the comic terrain. One of them is Albert Brooks, who, in a cosmic bad joke, is probably best known to today's audiences as the voice of Marlin in "Finding Nemo." But back in the early '70s, in a famous Esquire article and a series of legendary "Tonight Show" performances, Brooks set about gleefully exploding theAlbert Brooks' 'Lost in America' Remains Piercingly Relevant 32 Years Laterhttp://kvpr.org/post/albert-brooks-lost-america-remains-piercingly-relevant-32-years-later
80543 as http://kvpr.orgMon, 07 Aug 2017 17:46:00 +0000Albert Brooks' 'Lost in America' Remains Piercingly Relevant 32 Years LaterJohn PowersIt's that time of year when you hear talk of "summer reading," a term that refers to books that are fun and undemanding — you know, the perfect accompaniment to lying on the beach. Such books heighten the airy sense of irresponsibility that comes with escaping the gravity of our lives back home. That weightlessness is at the core of Beautiful Animals , a seductively menacing new thriller by Lawrence Osborne, a Bangkok-based English writer who unites Graham Greene 's fondness for foreign soil with Patricia Highsmith's fascination with the nastier coils of the human psyche. Set on the jet-setty Greek island of Hydra, this new novel offers all the glamorous pleasures of a vacation page-turner — you never know where it's heading. But it has things on its mind. The story begins with Naomi, a disgraced British lawyer in her late 20s who's spending the summer at the fancy vacation home of her father, an art collector whose values she disdains, though not enough to stop living off his money.Jet-Setting Vacationers Find Trouble In Paradise In 'Beautiful Animals' http://kvpr.org/post/jet-setting-vacationers-find-trouble-paradise-beautiful-animals
79718 as http://kvpr.orgMon, 17 Jul 2017 18:35:00 +0000Jet-Setting Vacationers Find Trouble In Paradise In 'Beautiful Animals' John PowersThere's a classic moment in the romantic thriller Charade , when Audrey Hepburn says to Cary Grant in exasperation, "Do you know what's the matter with you? ... Nothing." For decades, the whole world felt the same. Grant's unrivaled blend of charm, good looks and silliness — he hadn't a shred of pomposity or elitism — made him a movie star everyone loved. Everyone, that is, except Archie Leach, the actor's real-life self who wrote that he'd spent years cautiously peering from behind the face of a man known as Cary Grant. The journey from Archie to Cary is the subject of Mark Kidel's enjoyable documentary, Becoming Cary Grant . Weaving together the actor's private home movies, excerpts from his unpublished writings and terrific clips from his Hollywood work, this Showtime film tells the story of an arduous act of self-invention. Archie was born in working-class Bristol, England to a dapper, unreliable father and a hyper-ambitious mother, Elsie, who was ravaged by inner demons. When'Becoming Cary Grant' Reveals The Self-Invention Of A Hollywood Iconhttp://kvpr.org/post/becoming-cary-grant-reveals-self-invention-hollywood-icon
78312 as http://kvpr.orgFri, 09 Jun 2017 18:05:00 +0000'Becoming Cary Grant' Reveals The Self-Invention Of A Hollywood IconJohn PowersCopyright 2017 Fresh Air. To see more, visit Fresh Air . TERRY GROSS, HOST: This is FRESH AIR. The new film "Norman" was directed by Joseph Cedar, an Israeli filmmaker whose last two films, "Beaufort" and "Footnote," were both nominated for the Best Foreign Film Oscar. "Norman" is in English and is set mainly in New York. It stars Richard Gere as a Jewish small time operator hoping to hit it big. John says that "Norman" boasts the wit, feeling and storytelling precision that's largely vanished from today's movies. JOHN POWERS, BYLINE: I once went to hear a philosophy lecture about the difference between being and doing. I can't remember the arguments, which were all about language, but I do remember the speaker asking this, if you do something good for bad reasons, are you being good or bad? It's a question you may find yourself asking during "Norman," the mordantly funny new drama by Joseph Cedar, the crack Israeli filmmaker whose previous film, "Footnote," was a brilliant comedyAn Insignificant Hustler Yearns To Be A Big-Time Operator In The Ironic 'Norman' http://kvpr.org/post/insignificant-hustler-yearns-be-big-time-operator-ironic-norman
76204 as http://kvpr.orgTue, 18 Apr 2017 18:54:00 +0000An Insignificant Hustler Yearns To Be A Big-Time Operator In The Ironic 'Norman' John PowersBack in the 1980s, Salman Rushdie wrote that the defining figure of the 20th century was the migrant. I think his claim may be even truer of the 21st century. These days, the whole world, including our politics, is being shaped by migration. Few people explore the nuances of this reality more skillfully than Valeria Luiselli , a strikingly gifted 33-year-old Mexican writer who knows the migratory experience first-hand. Born in Mexico City to an Italian family, Luiselli spent her childhood in South Africa, her teens in Mexico and now lives in New York with her husband and their kids. Not surprisingly, her first three books — two novels and a collection of essays — are bursting with ideas on dislocation, national identity and knowing where you belong. These lofty-sounding themes take immediate, painfully concrete form in her latest book, Tell Me How It Ends: An Essay in Forty Questions , a deceptively slim volume just out from Coffee House Press. Where Luiselli's earlier work was marked'Tell Me How It Ends' Offers A Moving, Humane Portrait Of Child Migrants http://kvpr.org/post/tell-me-how-it-ends-offers-moving-humane-portrait-child-migrants
75772 as http://kvpr.orgThu, 06 Apr 2017 18:09:00 +0000'Tell Me How It Ends' Offers A Moving, Humane Portrait Of Child Migrants John PowersThese days, almost every new movie, TV show, album or book feels so anticipated and pre-packaged that we're already tired of it by the time it's released. This makes it especially thrilling when something dazzling just appears like that alien spaceship in Arrival , startling even those whose business it is be in the know. That's what happened with My Favorite Thing Is Monsters , a new graphic novel just out from Fantagraphic Books. The first of two volumes — the second comes out this fall — it's the brainchild of a 55-year-old Chicago illustrator Emil Ferris. Until she sent off the manuscript, nobody in the comics world had ever heard of her — I certainly hadn't — but this extraordinary book has instantly rocketed Ferris into the graphic novel elite alongside Art Spiegelman , Alison Bechdel and Chris Ware. You see, she's produced something rare, a page-turning story whose pages are so brilliantly drawn you don't want to turn them. My Favorite Thing Is Monsters is set amid the political'My Favorite Thing Is Monsters' Is A Dazzling, Graphic Novel Tour-De-Forcehttp://kvpr.org/post/my-favorite-thing-monsters-dazzling-graphic-novel-tour-de-force
74109 as http://kvpr.orgWed, 22 Feb 2017 19:02:00 +0000'My Favorite Thing Is Monsters' Is A Dazzling, Graphic Novel Tour-De-ForceJohn PowersCopyright 2017 Fresh Air. To see more, visit Fresh Air . DAVE DAVIES, HOST: This is FRESH AIR. The writer and director Ousmane Sembene, who died in 2007, is the most famous and acclaimed black African filmmaker. His first film, "Black Girl," which came out in 1966, was instantly hailed as a cultural breakthrough. A new, restored version of the film is now out on DVD, Blu-Ray and iTunes streaming. Our critic at large John Powers says "Black Girl" isn't merely a landmark but a movie that still packs a wallop. JOHN POWERS, BYLINE: We can all name movies that take place in Africa, from the many adventures of "Tarzan" to Oscar-winning hits like "Out Of Africa." But these are not movies that actually come out of Africa. They were made by outsiders looking in. In fact, I'd wager that most Westerners have never seen an African story filmed from the inside. There's no better way to correct this than "Black Girl," the taut, moving 1966 film that's widely regarded as the first ever fictionTaut, Moving 'Black Girl' Helped Put African Cinema On The Maphttp://kvpr.org/post/taut-moving-black-girl-helped-put-african-cinema-map
73680 as http://kvpr.orgFri, 10 Feb 2017 19:42:00 +0000Taut, Moving 'Black Girl' Helped Put African Cinema On The MapJohn PowersCopyright 2017 Fresh Air. To see more, visit Fresh Air . DAVE DAVIES, HOST: This is FRESH AIR. "20th Century Women" is the new movie by Mike Mills, whose previous film, "Beginners," won Christopher Plummer an Academy Award. Loosely based on Mills' own life, "20th Century Women" is the story of a teenage boy who learns about life from three women - a high school friend, an artistic lodger and his mother, played by Annette Bening in a performance that's being touted for an Oscar. The film's opening around the country, and our critic-at-large John Powers says it's a fun movie that hits you where you live. JOHN POWERS, BYLINE: Hollywood has always had trouble capturing how history enters our lives. It's able to celebrate landmark cases like the three African-American heroines of "Hidden Figures," whose mathematical brilliance helped break the color bar at NASA in the late '50s and early '60s. But when it comes to ordinary, undramatic life, our movies struggle with what it means to be born'20th Century Women' Mixes Comedy With Disappointment And Losshttp://kvpr.org/post/20th-century-women-mixes-comedy-disappointment-and-loss
72610 as http://kvpr.orgThu, 12 Jan 2017 18:33:00 +0000'20th Century Women' Mixes Comedy With Disappointment And LossJohn PowersIt's the great pleasure of my work that I get to spend my days watching and reading — and it's the great frustration that every year I'm haunted by all the terrific things I haven't talked about on Fresh Air . I call this collection my "ghost file," and as 2016 comes to an end, I want to un -haunt myself by sharing six of my favorite ghosts. They range from the cosmic to the comic. Dekalog by Krzysztof Kieślowski (Blu-ray and DVD) Filmmaking doesn't come much more cosmically ambitious than Krzysztof Kieślowski's 1989 Dekalog , one of the towering cinematic achievements of the last half century, which was finally released by the Criterion Collection. Each of its 10, hourlong films takes place in an unlovely Polish housing block and tells a story that offers a modern look at one of the Ten Commandments. For instance, "Thou shalt not have other gods before me" centers on a man who worships science, then must confront personal tragedy in a world he believes to be godless. Brilliantly madeA Critic's Year-End 'Ghost File': Books, Movies And TV Shows He Didn't Reviewhttp://kvpr.org/post/critics-year-end-ghost-file-books-movies-and-tv-shows-he-didnt-review
71583 as http://kvpr.orgWed, 14 Dec 2016 19:44:00 +0000A Critic's Year-End 'Ghost File': Books, Movies And TV Shows He Didn't ReviewJohn PowersIf any image haunts TV news, and perhaps our conscience, it's the seemingly ceaseless river of migrants seeking refuge from war, dictatorship and poverty. These desperate souls inspire pity, fear and election-year arguments about whether to offer them welcome or keep them out. Not surprisingly, many artists feel compelled to confront this refugee crisis. But the big question is: How do you engage a humanitarian tragedy without haranguing the audience or laying on a guilt trip? You get different but complementary answers in two prize-winning new works from Europe. One is an observational documentary, the other a quasi-mythic novel. Gianfranco Rosi's ravishingly shot Fire at Sea takes place on the tiny, unglamorous Sicilian island of Lampedusa, 70 miles from the coast of Africa. Year after year, tens of thousands of migrants turn up on disastrously overcrowded boats. So many come that the UN has an entire hazmat-suited system for handling them — they're rescued at sea, cleaned up,2 New Works Confront The Refugee Crisis With Empathy And Humanityhttp://kvpr.org/post/2-new-works-confront-refugee-crisis-empathy-and-humanity
71105 as http://kvpr.orgWed, 30 Nov 2016 19:24:00 +00002 New Works Confront The Refugee Crisis With Empathy And HumanityJohn PowersCopyright 2016 Fresh Air. To see more, visit Fresh Air .Feminist Western 'Certain Women' Takes On Friendship And Stoicismhttp://kvpr.org/post/feminist-western-certain-women-takes-friendship-and-stoicism
70335 as http://kvpr.orgTue, 08 Nov 2016 21:07:00 +0000Feminist Western 'Certain Women' Takes On Friendship And StoicismJohn PowersCopyright 2016 Fresh Air. To see more, visit Fresh Air . TERRY GROSS, HOST: This is FRESH AIR. Our critic-at-large, John Powers, has a review of "13th," Ava DuVernay's new documentary that opened the New York Film Festival and is currently playing in selected theaters and on Netflix. In "13th," DuVernay, who's best known for directing "Selma," explores how the United States became the country with the world's largest prison population and why a hugely disproportional number of those prisoners are black. JOHN POWERS, BYLINE: Like most Americans of every skin color, I wish I no longer had to think about race. It's uncomfortable. It's depressing. It's infuriating. But it's also an inescapable fact of our lives. That fact lies at the heart of "13th," a new documentary by Ava DuVernay, best known for directing "Selma," that's now showing in selected theaters and on Netflix. Taking its title from the 13th Amendment to the Constitution, which formally abolished slavery but left a loophole'13th' Maps The Road From Slavery To Mass Incarcerationhttp://kvpr.org/post/13th-maps-road-slavery-mass-incarceration
69659 as http://kvpr.orgFri, 21 Oct 2016 18:51:00 +0000'13th' Maps The Road From Slavery To Mass IncarcerationJohn PowersI have a friend in London who's at war with her car's GPS. Although she nearly always puts it on, she's driven mad by its voice, which is female, and refuses to follow its directions. She spends whole trips arguing with, barking at, and sometimes cursing this imaginary woman. She'd never be this rude to an actual human being. But, of course, a GPS doesn't have feelings. But what if it did? That's one of the many timely questions raised by Westworld , the darkly exciting new series that's HBO's biggest gamble since Game of Thrones . Developed by Jonathan Nolan and Lisa Joy, it's an ambitious reboot — and rethink — of the clever but clunky 1973 movie by Michael Crichton, who would go on to write the more popular but less provocative Jurassic Park . The show takes its title from the name of a futuristic theme park where visitors come to live out their Wild West fantasies. Inhabited by astonishingly life-like androids known as "hosts," Westworld lets guests ride the high-country, gun downOld West Gunslinging Meets Futuristic Androids In HBO's 'Westworld'http://kvpr.org/post/old-west-gunslinging-meets-futuristic-androids-hbos-westworld
68831 as http://kvpr.orgThu, 29 Sep 2016 19:04:00 +0000Old West Gunslinging Meets Futuristic Androids In HBO's 'Westworld'John PowersTelevision used to be careful when it told fictional stories about the presidency. It was bound by a sense of decorum. But things changed forever with the famous commercial for the movie Independence Day that wowed those watching the 1996 Super Bowl by blowing the White House sky high. Ever since, presidents have been fair game. You can portray them as thugs, schemers or murderers — or knock them off to boost ratings. The latest show to occupy the White House is Designated Survivor, a new ABC series created by David Guggenheim, best-known for writing thrillers like Safe House . To judge from its pilot, the show hopes to capitalize on current anxieties about everything from our divided government to the threat of cataclysmic terrorism. Kiefer Sutherland stars as Tom Kirkman, a lesser Cabinet member who, on the night of the State of the Union address, has been chosen as, well, the designated survivor. That is, he's the one sequestered away so the U.S. government still has a top officialKiefer Sutherland Takes Over The Oval Office As The 'Designated Survivor' http://kvpr.org/post/kiefer-sutherland-takes-over-oval-office-designated-survivor
68603 as http://kvpr.orgThu, 22 Sep 2016 02:36:00 +0000Kiefer Sutherland Takes Over The Oval Office As The 'Designated Survivor' John PowersCopyright 2016 Fresh Air. To see more, visit Fresh Air . DAVE DAVIES, HOST: This is FRESH AIR. The new film comedy "War Dogs" takes a new angle on America's wars in the wake of the 9/11 attacks. Directed by Todd Phillips, who's best known for "The Hangover," it stars Jonah Hill and Miles Teller as two unlikely arms dealers. Our critic at large John Powers says the movie's at its best when the characters are at their worst. JOHN POWERS, BYLINE: War may be hell, but it can be heaven for business. That's why for as long as there have been wars, there have always been people eager to make money from them. What makes America special is that the profits to be made are astronomical. This reality forms the backdrop of Todd Phillips' jauntily enjoyable new comedy "War Dogs." Just the latest movie to take it for granted, along with the majority of Americans, that our wars in Afghanistan and Iraq have been a real mess. Freely adapted from a 2011 Rolling Stone article by Guy Lawson, it tells the'War Dogs' Puts A Satirical Spin On The Business Of Warhttp://kvpr.org/post/war-dogs-puts-satirical-spin-business-war
67342 as http://kvpr.orgFri, 19 Aug 2016 17:15:00 +0000'War Dogs' Puts A Satirical Spin On The Business Of WarJohn PowersNovelists have always put their heroines through awful ordeals. But over time, these tribulations change. Where the 19 th Century was filled with fictional women trapped in punishing marriages — think of Middlemarch or The Portrait of a Lady — today's heroines face trials that are bigger, more political, and more physically demanding. They fight in hunger games. This fight takes a different form in The Natural Way of Things , a ferocious new novel by the Australian Charlotte Wood whose writing recalls the early Elena Ferrante — it's tough, direct, and makes no attempt to be ingratiating. Set in a dystopian backwater, her short, gripping book begins as an allegory of thuggish misogyny then evolves into a far stranger and more challenging feminist parable. The first chapters plunge us into a dusty, desolate prison camp deep in the outback. The prisoners, we learn, are 10 young women whose crime, so to speak, is to have been involved in sex scandals, from sleeping with a priest, toDystopian Novel Challenges Misogyny As 'The Natural Way Of Things'http://kvpr.org/post/dystopian-novel-challenges-misogyny-natural-way-things
66338 as http://kvpr.orgTue, 26 Jul 2016 18:11:00 +0000Dystopian Novel Challenges Misogyny As 'The Natural Way Of Things'John PowersWhen most of us think about computer hacking, we picture Julian Assange leaking government secrets or a shadowy, bad-shave crook in some former Soviet republic hoovering up credit card info from a chain store. But while folks like these do stir up all manner of trouble, a much deeper danger lies elsewhere. That danger is the theme of Zero Days , a chilling new film by Alex Gibney , who sometimes seems to turn out documentaries as quickly as tweets. This latest one may be his finest and most important, for it doesn't merely tell an exciting story about using a computer virus to wage black ops against Iran. Filled with juicy historical tidbits, it keeps expanding its frame of reference to reveal one of the looming, but invisible threats of the digital age. Gibney begins in 2010 in Belarus, where a computer security guy comes across a highly infectious new kind of malware — dubbed Stuxnet — that is dazzling in its complexity. Soon, computer whizzes, journalists and even our Department of'Zero Days' Documentary Exposes A Looming Threat Of The Digital Age http://kvpr.org/post/zero-days-documentary-exposes-looming-threat-digital-age
65969 as http://kvpr.orgMon, 18 Jul 2016 17:54:00 +0000'Zero Days' Documentary Exposes A Looming Threat Of The Digital Age John PowersTo judge from our media coverage, you'd think that Mexico isn't so much a country as a problem. But if you look beyond the endless talk of drug wars and The Wall , you discover that Mexico has a booming culture. In recent years, there's been an explosion of literary talent — from the sly provocateur Mario Bellatin to the brainy and funny Valeria Luiselli . This writing makes most American literary fiction feel pale and cannily packaged. Much of this work is now appearing in English thanks to today's heroic small presses. In fact, I've just read new novels by two rising Mexican writers whose work you really ought to know. While their books have some qualities in common — both are brief, brilliantly written, and kissed by a sense of the absurd — their different approaches hint at the range of today's Mexican fiction. Among Strange Victims , from Coffee House Press, is the first book to appear in English by 32-year-old Daniel Saldaña París. Translated with great verve by Christina2 Brilliantly Written Novels From Mexico Head Up A Wave Of Literary Talenthttp://kvpr.org/post/2-brilliantly-written-novels-mexico-head-wave-literary-talent
65664 as http://kvpr.orgMon, 11 Jul 2016 18:10:00 +00002 Brilliantly Written Novels From Mexico Head Up A Wave Of Literary TalentJohn PowersCopyright 2017 Fresh Air. To see more, visit Fresh Air . DAVE DAVIES, HOST: This is FRESH AIR. The new documentary "The Witness" tells the story of one of the most talked about crimes in modern American history, the 1964 murder of Kitty Genovese. Director James Solomon traces the attempts of the victim's younger brother Bill to make sense of what happened to his sister. Our critic-at-large John Powers says it gets you thinking about what happens when a news story becomes a legend. JOHN POWERS, BYLINE: Every culture has an unofficial mythology, a collection of emblematic stories that nearly everyone knows and believes, even if they're not altogether true. One of this country's darker myths centers on the murder of Kitty Genovese, a 28-year-old New Yorkers stabbed to death near her apartment in Queens on March 13, 1964. It wasn't the victim or killer who entered pop mythology. It was their audience. A few days after the crime, The New York Times ran an article reporting that while'The Witness' Exposes The Myths, Misconceptions Of Kitty Genovese's Murderhttp://kvpr.org/post/witness-exposes-myths-misconceptions-kitty-genoveses-murder
64685 as http://kvpr.orgThu, 16 Jun 2016 17:46:00 +0000'The Witness' Exposes The Myths, Misconceptions Of Kitty Genovese's MurderJohn PowersAn Emotional Storm Breaks In Paradise In 'A Bigger Splash'http://kvpr.org/post/emotional-storm-breaks-paradise-bigger-splash
63495 as http://kvpr.orgMon, 16 May 2016 18:04:00 +0000An Emotional Storm Breaks In Paradise In 'A Bigger Splash'